Ranting pro-Obama North Carolina teacher to retain her job

The North Carolina high school teacher who berated a student after that student, through a question, criticized President Obama will keep her job. The teacher, Tanya Dixon-Neely, was suspended without pay, but she will return to school next year. As a condition of her return, she reportedly will be required to start what was described as a “monitored growth plan.”

Most readers will recall that Dixon-Neely went ballistic on a student who, during a classroom discussion of reports that Mitt Romney bullied a fellow student when he was in high school, said, “Didn’t Obama bully somebody though?” The student was referring to an incident Obama described in his memoir, “Dreams From My Father.” (Thus, we can say positively that this incident either did or did not happen).

The teacher’s behavior was outrageous. However, assuming that she hasn’t been discipined for serious misconduct before and that monitoring plan is real, the punishment fits the crime, and I have no problem with her keeping her job.

JOHN adds: This reminds me of an episode from the early days of Scott’s and my political careers. At the University of Minnesota, they had a freshman orientation where all the student organizations had tables and passed out literature. The college Republicans participated, but the student monitors in charge of the event confiscated the Republicans’ literature and essentially kicked them out of the event. When the Republicans complained to the university’s administration in a very polite manner, the Dean of Students responded with a letter that said that the University of Minnesota is committed to diversity, and therefore you Republicans are not welcome here. Seriously.

We represented the college Republicans against the University of Minnesota–very successfully, I am happy to say. The settlement of the case included an agreement that the President of the University and his senior administrators would submit to a certain number of hours of First Amendment sensitivity training. Let’s hope that something similar is in store for this teacher.